*The name of this interviewee is a pseudonym to protect their confidentiality.
Students buzzed with thoughts after the 2026 midterm election. The election dramatically shifted the makeup of Congress, causing Democrats to assume the majority of seats in both the House and Senate, and flipped governor seats in multiple states. California elected its first Latino Democratic governor Xavier Becerra, while the highly anticipated billionaire tax, Proposition 40, failed to pass.
While the majority of M-A students aren’t eligible to vote, many participate in a mock election hosted by the California Secretary of State and M-A’s Service Learning Center. In 2024, out of a sample size of 254 M-A students, 24% opted for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and 73% voted for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while the remainder voted for a third party. In 2026, out of 402 students, 27% voted for Steve Hilton, the Republican governor candidate, and 73% voted for Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate. The consistent percentages for each political party mirrored the responses of interviewed students: most expressed that their views didn’t change significantly between the 2024 presidential election and this year’s midterms.
Nationwide, however, a higher percentage of voters in every demographic—race, gender, education level, age, etc.—voted for Democratic candidates in 2026 compared to 2024. Men, young people, and Latino voters most significantly swung left.
Senior Perrier Paramore voted in the midterm election. “I feel like it’s really important to have young voices in elections instead of just having the older generation vote,” she said.
Contrasting her reaction to the 2024 presidential election, Paramore was relieved with the outcome this year. “I was really happy with the election. I was a little scared because for the last election, which I couldn’t vote in, I thought the person who I wanted to win was going to win, but I was incorrect,” she said.
Paramore was surprised that Prop. 40 didn’t pass. “I really wanted that to pass. I thought that California was more blue as a state, and I thought that more people would vote for Prop. 40 to pass,” she said.
While junior Gael Garcia was too young to vote, he followed the election results and was pleased with Democrats’ success. “I’m very happy about the blue tide that took over the country. Texas became blue, and I’m glad to see that the Democrats are getting a lot more power in the Senate and Congress,” Garcia said.
Garcia feels the Democratic party aligns most closely with his values. “The Democrats speak for the everyday person, and I consider myself to be like an everyday person,” he said. “I feel like if we vote blue, if we agree with the Democratic policies of the left, our country is bound to succeed.”
Senior Maddie Mosso was able to vote, but feels less optimistic about the results, despite being pleasantly surprised with how the country voted. “I’m a very realist kind of a person, and I sadly do not believe for at least a year we’re really going to see any sort of change, either negative or positive,” she said. “It is going to take a while before we can actually start coming to some agreements that help the citizens of our country.”
Mosso also followed the results of Prop. 40. “That one I feel very conflicted on. As much as I would love to see a tax against billionaires, the people who are making a substantial amount of money, to help the people who are making very little money, I definitely think that there was a good amount of speculation about it,” she said.
Senior Alex Powell voted because he wanted to make a difference in the country. “If you want change, the best way to do that is voting,” Powell said. He was surprised and optimistic about the way the country swung in the midterms. “I think people are starting to want change overall, so I think there’s going to be pretty big changes pretty soon,” Powell said.
As a young person, senior James Jun felt a civic responsibility to vote and influence decisions made for the country. “Young people are going to be affected by the laws, [for] the longest time. So they should be the ones who have a voice in the laws,” he said.
Jun tried not to get all of his information regarding the elections from social media. “For government class, we have to read current events, so I read stuff about that. I feel like just the environment I grew up in, like M-A, the people around me, [influenced my vote],” he said.
Junior Ben Eames couldn’t vote but was appreciative about how things went, especially in states that voted for primarily Republican candidates in the past. “Trump is not a good person in my opinion, and I’m happy that other people in what used to be red states now realize what is happening, and they’re changing their mind about him,” Eames said.
While he didn’t follow most state propositions, Eames was adamant about Prop. 40. “If I could vote, I would vote yes to tax the billionaires,” he said.
Another student, John*, was generally unsurprised with the results of the midterm. “Republicans ran bad candidates, and so you have to get hit in the head in order to realize you’re being stupid, and so when you run bad candidates, you’re gonna lose,” he said.
John doesn’t expect the new Democratic leadership to have much effect on the country. “I think nothing really is going to change based off of the results,” he said. “I think it’s just going to be a two-year period where nothing’s going to happen.”
Jaime’s* views shifted between when Trump assumed office and now. “I used to like Trump, and now I really hate that dude. He’s really disgusting, and I just hope he goes to jail,” he said.
Jaime credits the midterm results to Trump’s leadership. “I’m really shocked at the fact that one single president managed to turn the entire Republican Party well into one that isn’t as big as it used to,” he said. “Even red states like Texas that have been Republican for over 20 years completely flipped in one night, which just one person did that, in two years.”
While he believes the elections may stabilize the country briefly, Jaime is less optimistic about its trajectory in the long term. “American politics have been so polarized that the country just looks so fractured, and it’s like the future isn’t so promising,” he said.
Sarah* commented on the amount of diversity the midterms will bring to leadership positions throughout the country. “There’s a lot of new [races] or cultures that are coming into the office,” she said. “America was known for freedom and diversity, and I feel like those different cultures that are coming in are a really good change.”
While Sarah’s views didn’t change after the 2024 election, she feels stronger in her own convictions now. “I think I’m a lot more educated about it, and I think I can make my own opinions stronger,” Sarah said.
